I was drawn to the Google Doodle today created by the Google team of course. I found their animation to be quite enchanting but also such an accurate portrayal of what a mother's love actually entails. There were three versions of the google doodle, but I happened to be drawn to the left arrow. When you clicked on it, the colorful ducks began speeding up behind the mother duck who was leading and they all toppled into eachother when the Mother Duck came to a halt. Then the animation began again and the same thing occurred (this racing to follow the Mother Duck and then a bit of a tiny duck pile-up as they realized they were going too fast.) And I think there were a couple of lessons to be learned through this animation. 

1. A mother's job is to slow down childhood. When I was younger (Elementary School) and coming out of a post office, I distinctly remember seeing a lady wearing a t-shirt that read "Childhood is a Journey not a Race." I remember immedietely telling my mother and now it is one of our favorite quotes. But how beautifully this was captured. Mothers have this beautiful way of slowing down time with their love. They purposefully slow us down because they are the older and wiser ducks. They are constantly urging us to slow down and look for the love. You cannot race whimsy. It flows but at a speed that allows intention and reflection. 

2. Motherhood is not perfect. Mothers are something asked to be perfect and it simply is not possible. No one was designed or created to be perfect. And I think just like that Mother Duck sometimes comes to a halt, we often have pile-ups of our own forcing the mother duck to stop abruptly. Sometimes life is one big, messy, colorful pile-up and there is not a darn thing you can do about it except get up, slow down and try again. 

3. Mothers are inherent leaders. And we never deem them as such-but it is true. They possess this multi-tasking larger than love leadership quality that requires abilities unimaginable. That's why no matter how big you get as a little duck, you are always behind your leader. Like the mother duck, they can slow down or speed up or change the direction of love in a heartbeat. One of the many reasons why I loved the fact that this Google Doodle rotated sides back and forth across the street from left to right and right to left- a reminder that love can take you in any direction. And a mother's directional compass is far greater than any google maps application. Because mothers have an intuition about where you are going and how and why and with whom. They tend to know before you even know. 

I am keeping my fingers crossed that you honored a mother duck today. Maybe it was a mom or an aunt or a grandmother or a cousin or a friend. Whomever deserved that Duckling love-I hope deeply that you appreciated the leader, the time-keeper, the journey pacer and of course the multi-tasker. Because without our mother ducklings, there would be none of these and few whimsical encounters.